A Rollercoaster Week

I'm not one for rollercoaster rides. The one time I went on the Viking @ East Coast Park, my friend Jasmine teased that I was unable to walk in a straight line afterward, and that I looked 脸青青.

The past few weeks have been rather like that Viking voyage.

From the night we made the offer on the new house till we settled this week, we've been in an Amazing Race against time and the many hoops of the home buying process.

Every time we thought we'd ticked off another to-do and sat back to take a breather and congratulate ourselves, another hurdle would present itself, and always with a sense of urgency, so that we felt we were living in a perennial state of suspense.

In fact, right up till the last day, we weren't sure we could settle on time.

A mix-up led to our First Home Owner Grant application going astray in one of many departments in the lender's office. Then our finance broker went MIA. Emails went unanswered. Calls to his Sydney number went straight to his answering machine. The usual voice recording was replaced by one that went:

Press 1 to send a number.
Press 2 to send another number.
Press 3 for more information. (But if you did press 3, the entire message would repeat itself!)
Otherwise, please hang up.

I kid you not.

We had counted on our FHOG application being processed on time so that the funds would come in as part of the settlement. Because of the mix-up, the FHOG processing was delayed, and we ended up with a substantial cash shortfall. We were faced with the unenviable position of either finding emergency funds, or delaying the settlement (and paying the contractual penalty).

Thanks be to God, emergency funding did come in.

For that, we have to thank 2 persons: my uncle, who just 'happened' to be visiting from Perth, and my cousin Mei, who lives here. My uncle stayed a week, arranged partial emergency funding, and flew home 2 days before settlement. He practically hand held us through the intricacies of the home buying process. Mei loaned us the rest.

After all the hoops we've had to jump through, settling successfully was a strangely tame affair. No champagne or fireworks, just a surreal sense of 'Golly, we did it!'

We're now back tackling the mundane: packing up the house, arranging for a rental truck, arranging for connection and disconnecting of utilities, calling for quotations for steam cleaning of the carpets (a must before handing over our rental property).

Hopefully, once we've moved into our new place, there'll be less living out of suitcases and we'll actually get to use the things we brought over from Sg.

Thank you all for your prayers.